Vodafone to move 300 jobs (from Rigney Dolphin) to North

Psychedelic

Not sure how many of these jobs will be lost from Rigney Dolphin in Waterford, but worrying to see more job losses.

The Communications Workers Union has warned that more than 300 jobs are being exported to the North following the decision by Vodafone to switch service providers.

Tele Perfomance, which is based in Newry, has won the contract to provide customer support from Rigney Dolphin.

As part of the changes, 26 Vodafone roles and 290 contract roles will transfer to Tele performance.

Full article: http://www.breakingnews.ie/business/vodafone-to-move-300-jobs-to-north-says-union-544524.html

kensutz

Rigney Dolphin is up north. From the article

The CWU said this puts at risk the jobs of the existing customer care workers based in Dublin and Dundalk.

Read more: http://www.breakingnews.ie/business/vodafone-to-move-300-jobs-to-north-says-union-544524.html#ixzz1ps6dTpLF

Faq

Don't think Vodafone is in waterford

Sully

Call center jobs are not reliable jobs. End of.

Cabaal

Sully wrote: »

Call center jobs are not reliable jobs. End of.

Outsourced call centre jobs are much less reliable then a company owned call centre as well,

This means jobs in Rigney would be far more at risk then say if the call centre was operated by Vodafone directly, outsourced will just go to the lowest bidder who can support their claims to offer the best service.

Psychedelic

kensutz wrote: »

Rigney Dolphin is up north. From the article

Didn't realise they had that many employees in their other locations, hopefully none of these jobs are lost in Waterford so. Still sad to see these jobs leave the country and it's not good for Rigney Dolphin as a company.

Professey Chin

Cabaal wrote: »

Outsourced call centre jobs are much less reliable then a company owned call centre as well,

This means jobs in Rigney would be far more at risk then say if the call centre was operated by Vodafone directly, outsourced will just go to the lowest bidder who can support their claims to offer the best service.

Which is why so many end up in India. Its pretty mad seeing how much of an afterthought service quality is in the negotiations of any kind of out sourcing. Seen it both in and out of call centre areas. Its just that by the things move up the line to decision makers, theyre diluted to a single powerpoint slide showing cost.

tiny-tyno

Sully wrote: »

Call center jobs are not reliable jobs. End of.

And what jobs are reliable these days?

ziedth

tiny-tyno wrote: »

And what jobs are reliable these days?

To be fair allot of companies can't just up and leave to a different location so the only way you loose your job in food, retail and hospitality to name a couple is if the company decides to close or downsize. Manufacturing and call centres can be out-sourced at the drop of a hat.

hardybuck

ziedth wrote: »

To be fair allot of companies can't just up and leave to a different location so the only way you loose your job in food, retail and hospitality to name a couple is if the company decides to close or downsize. Manufacturing and call centres can be out-sourced at the drop of a hat.

Manufacturing can be outsourced at the drop of a hat?

CardBordWindow

hardybuck wrote: »

Manufacturing can be outsourced at the drop of a hat?

Yep. A lot of companies are outsourcing to China. They work out a lot cheaper for basic parts.

hardybuck

CardBordWindow wrote: »

Yep. A lot of companies are outsourcing to China. They work out a lot cheaper for basic parts.

Companies are doing it, but I disagree that it can be done at the drop of a hat. The manufacturing umbrella still covers the areas of pharmaceuticals, the semi conductors industry, biotechnology and food processing etc. which all employ huge numbers here and take quite a bit of setup.

I wouldn't put them anywhere near call centres. As a lot of these Rigney staff are based in Dundalk and Dublin, I can see many of them nipping over the border to Newry and continue in their jobs.

Psychedelic

Seems like its 10 jobs in Waterford according to the News & Star:
http://www.waterford-news.com/news/mhgbsngbau/

ziedth

hardybuck wrote: »

Companies are doing it, but I disagree that it can be done at the drop of a hat. The manufacturing umbrella still covers the areas of pharmaceuticals, the semi conductors industry, biotechnology and food processing etc. which all employ huge numbers here and take quite a bit of setup.

I wouldn't put them anywhere near call centres. As a lot of these Rigney staff are based in Dundalk and Dublin, I can see many of them nipping over the border to Newry and continue in their jobs.

The point remains though that they can outsource pretty quickly, maybe not drop of a hat level of quickness but they can and probably would feck off to wherever if there was enough of a saving and I guess not a huge drop in quality.

hardybuck

ziedth wrote: »

The point remains though that they can outsource pretty quickly, maybe not drop of a hat level of quickness but they can and probably would feck off to wherever if there was enough of a saving and I guess not a huge drop in quality.

Well if you're strictly talking about outsourcing - if I'm a factory in Ireland who makes doors, I may be able to get the handles made quicker and cheaper in Asia.

If you're actually talking about companies relocating, you'd be looking at years before many manufacturing facilities could become operational.

Call centres, and specifically these Rigney Dolphin facilities, are actually outsourced jobs in themselves - i.e. Vodafone have outsourced them.

ziedth

The only plant I can remember off the top of my head was Dell moving the jobs from Limerick to Poland, I'm almost certain that was completed well within a year I'd actually almost say it took six months and that was like 1,500 jobs.

Then I guess in the grand scheme of things the actual time frame for moving jobs is largely irrelevant just that they can if it's in their own interest, my original point was that sectors such as Retail don't move jobs abroad.

hardybuck

ziedth wrote: »

The only plant I can remember off the top of my head was Dell moving the jobs from Limerick to Poland, I'm almost certain that was completed well within a year I'd actually almost say it took six months and that was like 1,500 jobs.

Then I guess in the grand scheme of things the actual time frame for moving jobs is largely irrelevant just that they can if it's in their own interest, my original point was that sectors such as Retail don't move jobs abroad.

That is because the Dell factory in Limerick was essentially an assembly line. Most of the parts were made in Asia, and they set up the Irish facility to avail of the tax rate here.

ziedth

hardybuck wrote: »

That is because the Dell factory in Limerick was essentially an assembly line. Most of the parts were made in Asia, and they set up the Irish facility to avail of the tax rate here.

I'm not sure I get your point budd, I worked in Hasbro and they are just assembly lines and they are a fairly big employer in the city. In theory they could up sticks and be gone as quick as Dell were.

Granted, I'll admit a company like Genzyme it would be very very unlikely that they would move given the level investment they have made in their staff and particular in their factory.

hardybuck

ziedth wrote: »

I'm not sure I get your point budd, I worked in Hasbro and they are just assembly lines and they are a fairly big employer in the city. In theory they could up sticks and be gone as quick as Dell were.

Granted, I'll admit a company like Genzyme it would be very very unlikely that they would move given the level investment they have made in their staff and particular in their factory.

Manufacturing generally means that you make a product. Teva make a product, Genzyme make a product, Bausch & Lomb make a product.

Dell as I said assembled parts together that were made in Dell plants in Asia. If I get a flat pack coffee table from IKEA and screw it together, I can't really going around calling myself a carpenter or furniture maker.

I also worked on an assembly line in Hasbro one summer years ago while in college, and I can't believe the factory is still there today. Having worked in the pharma industry both before and after that I couldn't get over how old fashioned it was. That is a factory which could relocate, not outsource, pretty quickly.

ziedth

^ I know I worked there when I was 16 nearly 12 years ago and I picked up contract work there last year before I was lucky enough to get back into retail and nothing is different in there from the methods to machinery. Nicest people working on the line mind.

BlaasForRafa

ziedth wrote: »

^ I know I worked there when I was 16 nearly 12 years ago and I picked up contract work there last year before I was lucky enough to get back into retail and nothing is different in there from the methods to machinery. Nicest people working on the line mind.

I ended up working their for a couple of years during the late 90's and I can't believe its still there either (although the workforce is less than half the size of what it was then). I also did a summer there while in college in the mid 90s (it was the place where all the local students went before AOL became the place all the students went)

They had a VAX mainframe in the front part of the building running their computer systems, I wonder if and when they got rid of it or whether its still soldiering on?

nkay1985

Hopefully this isn't going to affect workers in Waterford and, if it does, hopefully it's to a small extent.

With regard to the conversation about jobs that are vulnerable, I'm going to have to agree with hardybuck. I think sometimes the terms factory work and manufacturing are confused; they are not necessarily the same thing.

For example Bausch and Lomb announced that they were closing down their plant in Scotland a good while ago now, maybe even two years. I think it's actually closed now. And that was a case where they were shipping their operation to another site that already had the technologies that were coming in. If you were working in a company that was making something and they decided they were going to start making that thing in a new plant in India or China or wherever, it'd be a very long process.

Something like Hasbro would be easier alright but there are still lots of barriers to it, such as capital tied up in machinery and property.

Call centre work is about the most vulnerable thing going unfortunately. I believe that it shouldn't be and that, if you were providing an excellent service, it should be secure but Talk Talk proved that this just isn't true. Companies don't care enough about their customers to pay for good customer care.

chelloveks

They figured out how to move the Waterford Crystal manufacturing overseas. Maybe not drop of the hat, as it was none very slyly over a number of years, but it sure as ****e is gone now!

It's all economics....as wages and cost of inputs rise management looks for cheaper alternatives elsewhere.....the Celtic Tiger isn't dead, it just moved to greener Or should i say more economically viable pastures!

nkay1985

chelloveks wrote: »

They figured out how to move the Waterford Crystal manufacturing overseas. Maybe not drop of the hat, as it was none very slyly over a number of years, but it sure as ****e is gone now!

It's all economics....as wages and cost of inputs rise management looks for cheaper alternatives elsewhere.....the Celtic Tiger isn't dead, it just moved to greener Or should i say more economically viable pastures!

Waterford Crystal basically folded. Of course they'd moved a lot of manufacturing overseas but that's the exact point I was making - it takes a lot of time to do so.